Day 12 Anotock Cache (GC128Z)

This morning was an up and go sorta day. I got up and got out. Had to be back home by 9:30 am. I needed to be in Bradford by 10am with Takoda. Niki had a dentist appointment in Jamestown a little later We split our resources and got the jobs done. This is day 12 so lets keep this train going. I got up with the kids. Breakfasted them up. Brewed some coffee. Turned on our electric baby sitter. Yeah some times I am one of those kinds of parents. So bug the F off. Any how I knew Niki would be up soon. I geared up for geocaching. Saw that the closest cache was the Anotock Cache at .6 miles away. Niki came down the stairs as I was heading out the door. Looking at the GPS I saw that I knew the where abouts of the caches' location. It should be at the end of Janeway St and into the wooded paths beyond. Fun Fun. I take KC and the camera.

Two blocks down but still on Janeway ST I stand at the paths entrance into the wood. The path is really a service road for the gas lines, and utilities. I have hiked around here a lot. I pretty much know where I am going on these paths. So KC and I enter. I look at the GPS get an idea as to where I want to go. I then unleash KC. He loves these woods also. I arrive at the first junction and take a right. Then a second right I'm heading towards Kane Manor. The sun has finally surfaced I see it sprinkle onto the forest floor as it is filtered through the trees. The smells are full of fall. The fall flowers mixed in with the drying leaves. It is a happy place I walk through it at peace. Eventually the Kane Manor path branches off to the left. A quick glance at the GPS tells me that the cache is possibly that way. I head that way and shortly the distance between me and the cache increases. I back track a little until the cache is .2 miles away. I decide to bush wack in. So through the woods I tramp climbing over fallen trees and stumbling though branches, and saplings. After a bit of this I am deposited onto a path. I see a bridge. I start back into the woods towards the cache. I hear a wooden thump. KC has just slipped and fell onto the leaf covered bridge. I stifle a laugh. The cache is now 300 feet away. I come up to within 10 feet of the cache. Then I see it. In a funky shaped bowl of a tree. Day 12 is complete. Now I just got to get home and rush through the rest of my morning :)

Day 11 Words of Wisdome (GCQAE6)

Novalee is feeling better this morning. So we decide to seek “words of wisdom”. It is only .4 miles away. Niki, Novalee, KC, and I gather at the front of the house. I achieve GPS signal. I see the cache is at the top of Taylor ST. I tell Niki it looks like it is over in that direction. I step towards her to show her the GPS map, but she is gone. She heads up the street. I guess she is rearing to go. I study the map a bit longer and decide that we should head along Welsh St until we get to Taylor, and then head up. I call out to Niki who is at the top of Janeway St now and waiting for me at the corner of Janeway and Dawson. “Dear I want to go the other way. You know along Welsh.” Niki is too far away for me to read her facial ques, but I can tell she is a little annoyed by the way she walks. Sigh, oh well. She is back at our starting point and I show her the map. Then ask her the rhetorical, “Are you mad?” She looks at me, “you could have told me I was going the wrong way.” I nodded assent. Then off towards Welsh we walked. On the corner of Welsh and Janeway I told Niki we were heading towards Taylor St. Niki let out a “So I was heading in the right direction” I acknowledged she was correct again, “You know dear there is always more than one way to get anywhere in this town. I think this is the best way though.” She did not disagree. So along the length of Welsh we traverse heading north. We see a few houses for sale. “That one has a nice big yard.” yeah but not much of an up stairs. But it has a garage.” Such is the idle chitter chatter that passes between us. The older houses of Kane give way to modern houses on this part of Welsh. The power lines are buried. The sky line is open. The tree line in back of the houses seem crisp and clear. I regret not bringing my camera. It was foggy and raining when we left, and I did not want to risk the camera. Now however their was no fog. It was not raining, and I wanted my camera. Next time. At the corner of Welsh and Taylor we met a poodle on a leash, KC got excited. KC whines and almost howls, and then pulls hard in the direction of other dog, it sounds like he is hurt. Truth is, I guess he is just very social. It took a bit of effort to calm him down. We continue on up Taylor. We are 1000 ft away from the cache. We have pretty much guessed we are heading for the care wash. We arrive. Reread the cache description. The GPS leads us with in 6 ft of it. I start poking around. “It isn't,” oh but it is. “How very sneaky.” I found the cache. Niki thinks it was very clever. I was lucky to have found this one. Cause it was concealed so as look very natural. I am the first to sign the log book. Novalee asks if we are going to dollar general, it is not to far away. I actually consider it until I remember we have KC with us. No, Novalee, we are going home, and that is where we went.

Day 10 AGT-Mkcean- Cookies Canyon Cache (GC1RWDA)

I worked during the day today, so no morning cache for me. That is OK though. I put in my time 7am til 3pm.. When I got out of work I was ready to go. Novalee is still sick, and cranky. Niki and Takoda stayed home with her. David was ready and rearing to go. It is raining. No big deal. It has been wet a lot lately.. I sure am glad that I have taken as many pictures as I have this fall because I don't think there will be much foliage to enjoy when the skies clear. David and I hop into the car. We decided to do an AGT cache called Cookies Canyon. I have wanted to do this cache for a while now. The cache description promises a very nice view. I fire up the gps. The cache is about 4 miles away. It looks like there is a road we take off rte 321. It is forest road, a right just before Red-bridge. David is driving. We are listening to the radio. Our conversation dies down as a warning broad cast informs us that Western McKean county will be under a state of alert for flash flooding and heavy rains until 6:30 pm. I file the information away in my head, I wonder are we in the Western half of McKean county or the eastern half. It does not seem to be raining to hard right now so we keep going. Eventually we got to our right turn. The road we turn onto is a well maintained oil well access type of road. These one lane dirt roads run all through the Allegheny National Forest. This one we soon find out winds up and around a mountain at a good grade. I am nervous. David can see this. We begin to talk of a similar experience only we were driving down MT Washington. That was worse and knowing I had been through worse some how made this not so bad. I still did not much care for the road or the route, and the weather. Especially considering that the radio had warned us of heavy rains and flash flooding. “I bet it would not take much to wash out this road.:”I was saying. Dave told me, “If you really don't like the way the road drops off, then you should not keep looking down.” I took his advice and it did get easier. We drove a bit and the cache got closer and then far away as we looped the mountain. Then closer again. Then even closer. At one point we were .2 of a mile away. Then the cache distance began to grow as we look for a good place to park. We drive by a likely spot. Find a save place where we will not fall off a cliff or get stuck to turn the car around. Then we drive back to our parking place. We end up parking next to a green oil pump station. We are .3 of a mile away from the cache. We look at the gps. Look at my compass. Look a path that looks like it goes away from our cache direction. We bush whack into the woods. I stumble over brush and leaves and almost fall on my face a few time. Our bush whacking path opens up to join the path we had spurned moments ago. Seems as though now it angles in the direction we want to go so we follow it. This path descends at a good angle and looking ahead I can tell there will be a view. I look down at the gps and realize we are 300 feet away from the cache. 200, 100, 50, 13, and 3. I announce it, “3 feet” David lets me know he saw something moving in the brush ahead of us. I am not worried. “If we are loud it will leave us alone.” He looked at me, not quite frowning, “I hope so.” We both grew quiet as we looked for the cache. Then I heard him say it, “I found it.” I walked over to him and said, “Nice job” He passed me the ammo box. I opened it and signed the log book. He pulled out his agt passbook. “Can I have the Stamp?” he said... I looked at him and shook my head, “You know I forgot we about the book and I pulled mine out. “The stamp has Mckean Country on it, and the number 20. I happily stamped my book. We put the cache lid back in its hiding place and walked down the path we were on until we got to the view. It was magnificent. We were at level height with the mountains that surrounded us. The valley below, Was filled with greens yellows and reds. Wisps of silver clouds danced atop tress., and rivers of fog ran off, through and between the mountains. I think this is the most rewarding cache I have been on. I should have brought the camera in spite of the rain. Oh well. This little piece of paradise is not to far away. I can come back again when the weather is right and take some great pictures.

Day 9 Evergreen Key Chain A nice secluded place.

Today I had a few things I wanted to get done.. First off I wanted to go and get a AGT pass book from the Kane chamber of commerce. David and I are planning to try and get all 10 AGT coins. This is pretty exciting stuff. I figured I could pick up a local cache afterward. Which ever one happened to be closest to the chamber of commerce would do. Niki and Novalee opted to stay home because Novalee had come down with a bit of a cold overnight.

I geared up and walked up town to the chamber of commerce. It is a raw day today. Raining and cold. I have my winter hat under my fedora. I walk up town. Janeway St to Chase St and so forth till I am deposited onto Fraley St. I walk along Frailey until I come to the front of the old Movie Theater. It still looks like a theater but it is now a rollerskating rink. At a whim I decide to check in my friend Scott, who lives in an apartment up above the old theater. I check the mail boxes for names hoping I will see his. I do thus discovering which apartment is his. I head up and enter through traditional means. Once in his apartment. I ask him if he wants to come with me on my geocach hunt. He agrees to come with along until he realizes that it is raining. We chat a bit. Then we part company. There is much to do today. I continue on along Fraley Street until I reach the chamber of commerce. Lucky me it is open. An older woman greets me with pleasant inquiry. She has heard of geocaching. She efficiently locates two AGT stamp books. We talk about geo caching for a bit. She confides that she is surprised at how many people enjoy the hobby. “It is a great way to keep fit.” she tells me. I of course agree. Then I tell her about my blog. She is really into the idea. Our conversation comes to and end when she excuses herself and tends to tend another who has just entered the chamber of commerce. It is time for me to move on any how. I still have yet to found my cache today. Once out side I fire up my GPS. It takes a minute or so for it to find satellites. I hear a satisfying beep telling me it is ready. I search the GPS for near by caches. The closest is Evergreen Key chain cache. I read the description of the cache. Then I read the 10 most recent cache posts. It is called the key chain cache because the treasures inside consist of key chains... Brilliant. :) It looks like it will be a easy cache to find. I look at the map screen, and see that it is in the bottom portion of the Evergreen park. The cache is .3 miles away. I don't need the GPS to guide me there so I wear the gps on my chest. It is supported by a sturdy woven rope around my neck. I walk to the park. The park is well named. Many evergreen trees populate the park providing good shade covering sections of open space. This is a peaceful place. A paved path runs through it. I walk on this path. As I get close to the area where I think the geocach might be I remove the GPS from its resting place and I take a reading. I am about 200 feet away. I am close. I head in the direction that the cache is hidden. The feet are counting down as I near. I hop over a trench and enter into the trees. To my surprise there is a secluded little picnic spot I have just entered. This would be a very nice place to hang out with friends. I walk past the table and out of the forested alcove. Wow a big field opens up to me. A great place to play Frisbee. I am now within 10 feet of the cache. I begin to poke around and hunt. I quickly find the well concealed cache. I open it up and look at the key chain collection within. I then fish out the log book and log my visit. I have to take off my fedora while signing the book cause rain water is dripping off it. This was a fine cache. I do not dare spend to much time here enjoying my victory because I want to go back to yesterdays cache at Kinzua Bridge Park and stamp my new AGT book. No small feat considering that the day is growing short and I will have to go to work soon. I place the cache back in its hiding place and I walk back home.

Day 8 AGT McKean-Kinzua Bridge (GC16YBC) A thorny issue.

Today I was slow to get going. My head hurt, but it  being day 8 I refused to let a headache stop me. It just slowed me down a bit. So it was past lunch before getting started. I wanted DNJC in on this one. The day before he had expressed interest in seeing the Kinzua Viaduct State Park again. I figured we could kill two birds with one stone. We could see the park, and I could gain an extra set of eyes to help find the cache. Once he was up we checked for caches at the park. We did this by logging into http://www.geocaching.com/.  There we found 2 caches. I only needed to do one but I loaded both onto my GPS. One of em was an AGT cache. David and I being curious as to what an AGT cache was we looked it up and found out it stands for Allegheny GeoTrail. The AGT caches each have a stamp in them. If you have a stamp book then you stamp it each time you find an AGT cache. If you get 3 AGT caches in a county then you get a coin. DNJC collects coins. I geocache every day. We decided to go get a passbook and start collecting coins. A beautiful marriage of effort. Unfortunately we can't get the pass book til tomorrow, so we had decided to do the "Nature Had Other Plans Cache." today and then the AGT cache tomorrow.
  DNJC, Novalee, KC, and I drove the old van up to Kinzua State Park. It is a nice place. It is being fixed up pretty well.  The park is where the famous Kinzua Viaduct had once spanned a great valley.  It was an engineering marvel. Mother nature tore the span apart during a little wind storm a few years back. The ruins of the viaduct are amazing. Twisted metal towers line the valley floor. But what is more amazing is the Viaduct still stands tall and spans almost half the valley. Eventually the bridge will be fortified and there will be viewing platform at the wrecked bridges end. This will be three shades of awesome. To be able to walk so high up and over the valley until you get to where the bridge was torn asunder by the mad winds of the Kinzua Valley. Then to look out over the rest of the valley. Seeming suspended 200 feet in the air. Mmm very exciting. We came here to see if it seemed that they were close to finishing. David was told before summer began that the park would be finished by the fall. Either they are behind schedule or the ranger meant the project would be done in the fall of 2011. We decided to check out the cache, before the bridge. Eventually we made it to the General Kane trail which the cache was on. We unleashed KC. He sprinted back and fourth relishing in his freedom. Novalee sang some tuneless melodies. I heard "dog" in there and "love." To quote a line in Toy Story II, "She's and artist". The GPS did its count down as we approached the cache. Then when we were very close. We began hunting for the hiding place. We searched, and we searched, but nothing. David and I look at the cache description in the GPS. Then hunted again, and nothing. We tramped through prickers flipped over stumps, and looked under rocks, and nothing. Our hands all pricked up we looked at the comments that other geocachers left. Turns out the coordinates on groundspeak are off, no problem. We imputed the new coordinates.... Nothing. We read more comments. The cache is 80 feet away from the coordinates. We go 80 feet in either direction from the cache and nothing.  Eventually Novalee would have to answer natures call. I helped her with that and we looked some more. KC wore himself down and still we hunted. The sun came out then was covered by clouds again. Soon it would be time to go home and make dinner, so we relented. I still needed a cache today though so we decided to look for the AGT cache after all. We found the AGT cache near where we parked the van. We logged our visit then went down to enjoy the great view this park offers.

Day 7 Another Dam Geocach (GC1AWDA) Nope don't feel like being tarzan after all

   Today was special. It being Saturday, we  traveled out of town for our geocachng adventure. We are in Austin PA. A small town about an hour away from Kane. I have been wanting to come here for a while to see the ruins. Austin was home to a pretty big disaster a hundred years ago. It seems their Dam busted. The resulting floods killed around 75 people, and wiped out the towns paper producing industry. The ruins of the recked dam are still here, and are now part of the  Austin Memorial State park. Our cache is also in this park.
  Niki, Takoda, Novalee, and DNJC (aka Hawk Eye, aka David) and I arrived at Austin Memorial State Park. We did not drive to the lot at the base of the dam. We could have, but decided not to. We parked in the uper lot near a view. The park road is not wide. Only one vehicle can drive in either direction. The park seemed to have fallen to disrepair. Every thing was over grown and wild looking. I liked it. We piled out of our van got snacks and looked down into the valley.  Then over at the ruined dam.  Wow is my first reaction. Then again wow. A broken wall.  Concrete fingers stabbing up in the sky. Re barb, rusty fingers sticking out of giant broken concrete walls. What is left of the dam is big. I am eager to begin my way down into the valley. There is a trail leading down along the dam wall and then through it, and around it. The feeling that I am witnessing the fall of man invades my thoughts once again. Seems as though everywhere I look there are dieing main streets, and abandoned factory building. Ruined dreams. Ruined infrastructure that was once a promise to so many. Sigh as I ponder this, Takoda has run up ahead dogging DNJCs tracks. Even Niki and Novalee is up ahead.  I take pictures of both of em. Them being in these pictures helps me to gain insight, perspective, as you will as to the mass involved. These ruins are testament to the fallibility of man, and a great reminder that even though we often  feel the gentle hands of mother nature. She is still a woman and occasionally she just has to bitch slap us to remind us that she can. We wonder about these ruins. I often stand in awe as I marvel a them. I am not sure how long it is that we meander through the shadows of this once great dam, but eventually we decide to look for the cache.
   The cache is .5 miles away. Though we could drive to get closer to it we decide that it will make a fine walk. We begin. The dam slowly recedes. More pictures are taken. DNJC, Takoda, and I are in the lead. Takoda is trying to get DNJC to carry him. The boy is tireless with his arguments and his complaints that he is tired. His complaints do not match his actions, and he is very active.  I  tell him to try and not say anything if he has nothing pleasant to say. He tones down a bit. He is actually behaving quite well and I am enjoying him. I like watching him and even listening too him. I try to figure out how he thinks. I believe he is going to grow and develop into a very clever and smart man some day. He may have been saddled down with autism but he has been given so many gifts that I think maybe this was natures way to balance him out. I hope so any how. Niki and Novalee bring up the rear guard. Novalee does not complain. She just keeps going. Slow and steady. I stop in the middle often, so as they can catch up. The ruins of the dam has long since disappeared from sight. The distance to the cache is small but the going is slow. Must be the uneven grass covered ground that slows us down. Eventually  the over grown grass and brush give way to a forested area and this too gives way and we come out onto the road we drove in on. The going is faster now, and the gps is counting down quickly. We are about a thousand feet away. "I love it when we start to get close and the gps is counting down feet." I announce to David. We wait for Niki Takoda and Novalee to catch up. It seems as though Takoda has given up on being carried and so now is hanging back with his mom.  We begin walking again Niki is glad, she smiles and says, "I thought you heard me tell the kids that you guys would find the cache before we had a chance to help look for it. "I wouldn't do that, when we get wthin 13 feet we will stop and then we will all look for it together." She is happy with this and we continue on. The count down continues as we move forward. Now we are withing 500 feet of the cache. We have to take a path through the woods and it starts out pretty wet. Niki decides to hang back. She and the kids find a convenient picnic to take some rest. David and I come to the end of the path and the cache appears to be 300 feet away across a swift flowing river. Dave and I look at each other, and then the path on the other side of the river. Then we head back up to Niki and the kids. "Niki, the cache is on the other side of the river. Why don't you guys wait here I will walk up and get the van, then we can look on the other side." She looked startled, "No we are just resting." I thought a moment. "Well all right we will see if maybe we can get across." David dropped off some of his more expensive gear. He was getting ready to fjord the river. "It is going to be cold." I told him. "I know" He said.  I believe he would have done it but, I kinda implied it was not such a good idea. Then, "Only if we had a rope." he said. "We do, I have one in my bag." He was surprised when we actually pulled the rope out of my bag. David attached a rock to the end of the roap. We found a tree that over hung the river. The new plan was too swing the rope over the tree branch. Wrap the stone around the tree and swing over to the other side Tarzan style. Unfortunately we got the stone stuck too low in the tree. I climbed the tree and affixed the rope to the tree where we had aimed the rope for earlier. David gave the rope a tug testing it. I'm sure we both came to the realization at the same time that it would not work but I voiced it. David agreed. I unfastened the rope and got out of the tree. Nope don't feel like being  Tarzan today. We had a couple other ideas but ultimately decided that we could get to the other side of the river faster if we got the car and drove around. We took the road back up to the van. Niki was just buckling the kids in. We headed out. Drove over the bridge on the way out the park. Before the narrow park road met the main road we noticed the park road branched off running along the side of the river. We took the branch because it took us closer to the cache. This road led to a well groomed picnic area. We parked as close to the cache as we could.  A .2 of a mile walk along a well marked path and we were at the cache. Nice and easy. It was a great day in a great setting.

Day 6 To Serve and Protect (GCQD4B) Third time is the Charm

A Micro Cache. I knew sooner or later it would come to this. It  was not your ordinary Micro Cache (MC).  No it was the, To Serve and Protect MC.  I had attempted it twice before, while using my now retired Garmin V. The first time I was with Niki, we poked and we prodded and we circled the building and retraced our steps over and over again. Til finally we gave up exasperated. The second time I brought Hawk Eye. He and I shared a similar experience. Both these attempts were well over a year ago. I had become convinced that this cache was inside the Kane Burrow Municipal Building. The building that I was sure had inspired the caches name. I went inside. "Excuse me" I said to the woman behind the desk. She looked up almost startled although she saw me enter. "I have a question. You see I have this hobby called geocaching and I'm looking for a cache somewhere on this property," As I was saying this another woman entered the room walking behind the woman I was talking to. Her face was lit up with A knowing smile. I continued my question but now addressing both of them. "I was hoping you could tell me whether the cache is inside, or out." The smiling woman said, "Definitely out side."  "Out side I repeated."  "Definitely" She said. I smiled and rolled my eyes, I tossed a thanks her way and headed out side again. I told Niki that we were wrong about it being inside. We checked the GPS rereading the cache description. The most recent cache posts and the hint. We circled the parking lot like sharks. Getting closer then farther away. We checked the signs, and then checked them again. Then circled again. In hind sight the Magellan eXplorist GC pretty much had lead us right to it. My Garmin V was never that good. A little poking and prodding and Niki and I both found the cache together. Novalee KC and I posed for the foud it picture near the cache. Niki quickly descovered that there was no memory card in the camer. Maybe Hawk Eye and I will swing by later with the camera. Now that I'm in the know it will be nice watching someone else look for it. This Micro Cache was a great hide. I guess third time is the charm.